


The Return

by calenlily



Category: Damar Series - Robin McKinley
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-21
Updated: 2011-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-27 15:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calenlily/pseuds/calenlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Dick, the Colonel's gone," Tom Lloyd said urgently. "He rode off into the desert two days ago with your sister and two dozen men."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Return

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magelette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magelette/gifts).



Dick arrived at the fort near sundown, having ridden hard to vent the frustration of the fruitless task he'd been assigned. Once again the concerns he shared with Colonel Dedham about there being real danger to them from the wild desert beyond their border outpost, concerns that grew with each passing day, had been summarily dismissed. Once again he had been told with typical bureaucratic cordial obstinacy that no more men could be spared to the General Mundy.

He had been glad to take on the mission, as he had been glad of anything to keep him occupied in the past months, desperately throwing himself into work to keep himself from thinking about Harry's disappearance. He was not sure which was worse, the near certainty that she was dead or the treacherous little niggling thought - less a thought than a feeling from some strange instinct buried in the back of his mind - that she wasn't.

But these hopeless - practically pointless, for all that Colonel Dedham and Sir Charles praised his diplomatic skills - missions were beginning to wear on him ever more as his desperate anger at the situation gave way to despair. Tonight, all he wanted was to get home so he could collapse.

Reaching the security of the high brick walls of the General Mundy, he rode up to the wooden gate, where the man on watch hailed him and unbarred the gate to let him in. He headed straight to find Colonel Dedham and make his report.

But as he strode towards the Colonel's quarters, one of the men on watch ran down from the guard post and hurried across the court to intercept him.

"Dick, the Colonel's gone," Tom Lloyd said urgently. "He rode off into the desert two days ago with your sister and two dozen men."

Dick halted in his tracks. _"What?"_

"Harry's alive, Dick. She showed up at the gate with two companions from the Hills, looking for all the world like she was one of the Hillfolk herself, insisting she had to speak to Colonel Dedham. Caused the greatest stir there's been here since ... well, since she disappeared. She was closeted with the Colonel all morning, and the Colonel came out and asked for volunteers to defend Ritger's Gap against the North. They were gone by sundown," Tom said.

Dick wasn't sure whether he understood more or less after that explanation. "I think you'd better give me more details."

By the time Tom was done telling him about Harry's unexpected reappearance, he already knew he could not stay, though he did not make the decision consciously. That instinct that had awakened in the back of his mind and he had endeavored to suppress since he first arrived in Istan, that same instinct that had hinted Harry might still live, pulled at him now. This time he did not fight it as it pulled him towards the desert, urging all haste.

It was strange, he reflected, how he had been daunted by the desert's wild power, by the way it had captivated Colonel Dedham and then Harry, feared it because he had felt the same draw within himself. He had fought with all his might to suppress it, determined to be a model soldier and not bring shame upon himself. He was convinced of the legitimacy of his fears when Harry had disappeared. Now the desert had taken the Colonel as well. But only now he realized that while that force was indeed puissant and dangerous, it was not to be feared, was not malevolent as he had thought. In that understanding he set out to follow where they had gone before.

He did not stop to think or put any planning into his flight, just saddled up the fastest horse he could find in the garrison's stables and took off towards the north and west.

He felt no guilt for abandoning his post, though he thought perhaps he should have. But between his duty to Her Majesty's Government by way of the 4th Cavalry and his duty to do what ought to be done, to his conscience and his only remaining family, it was clear to him that there could be no honor in following orders. Wasn't that what Colonel Dedham had already decided?

He _was_ initially somewhat ashamed of stealing the horse. His guilt subsided when he considered that it had belonged to Bill Stubbs, who had really never deserved such a good horse anyway (especially when he remembered what Tom had told him of Bill's treatment of Harry when she showed up at the gates of the fort).

The last red glows of sunset were fading from the horizon as he set out, but he rode on into the night until he could go no longer, acutely feeling the fact that, while he'd taken a fresh mount, he himself had already had a long day and was near to falling asleep on his mount's back.

That night he had only hastily made camp before sleep overtook him, but when he awoke and set off again he began to consider the ramifications of his hurried departure. He still had some spare rations in his saddlebags left over from the diplomatic mission he'd come from, but they would only last a short time, and the vague direction of northwest was all he knew of how to find his destination. But as the day wore on and passed into the next, he found he need not have worried, for the instinct that had drawn him towards the Hills was working for him. Without knowing how he knew, he found that when paths forked he was drawn to the correct one and when he looked at the strange, sparse vegetation that grew in the desert he could tell which were good to eat. And so, despite his discomfort at being driven by some power he could not understand, his anxiety over setting out so uncharacteristically irresponsibly began to shift, settling finally into a steady certainty that he was doing the right thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my beta, moviemom44.


End file.
